As we reflect on this past year, the word that comes to mind is impactful. At the beginning of 2015, we were engaged in asset-based community development efforts in two neighborhoods. At the end of 2015, we are blessed to be supporting efforts in seven neighborhoods with two more community engagement efforts under development. This rapid expansion in asset-based community development efforts across Metro Richmond is the direct result of the hard work of our community partners who successfully completed both our Mission Shift training programs and the summer Dream Catcher projects. We are thrilled to have had the opportunity to train over 200 church and community leaders in ABCD in 2015. The video below contains the highlights of this past year: The most exciting achievement this year was the expansion of the Dream Catcher project which engaged over 20 neighborhood youth in the community building efforts in their neighborhoods. As a result of their hard work, seven new action teams were formed. These teams are addressing issues of safety, community connectedness, economic revitalization, school strengthening and youth activities. Below is a short video about this project: Additionally, Embrace Richmond turned 10 years old this year and celebrated our 10 year journey with nearly 100 of our closest friends and supporters. We have captured the highlights of this 10 year journey in this video. The amazing year we had would not have been possible without our community partners, our donors, our wonderful staff, the hardworking neighborhood leaders, our board of directors and the countless volunteers who have served so faithfully. Please help us make 2016 even more impactful by...

This past Thursday, Embrace Richmond invited our partners, supporters and friends to help us celebrate the past ten years’ worth of milestones and accomplishments of our organization. The event was hosted at the Firehouse Theater and funded by our generous Board Chair, Don Reich. Two of our newest merchants from Brookland Park Boulevard, Nomad’s Deli and Streetcar Cafe provided the food for the event with an assortment of wraps, sandwiches, wings and platters to make sure no one went hungry. We hosted a reception for the first hour, which was then followed by a presentation led by our executive director, Wendy McCaig. The presentation featured firsthand stories from those who have been with us since the beginning and those who have joined us over the years to help us grow Embrace Richmond and the communities we work with. Close to 90 people came to celebrate with us and we couldn’t be more grateful or humbled to have so many people involved with Embrace. Thank you for a great 10 years and here’s to 10...

For the past year Embrace has partnered with Northminster Church to help provide access to healthy, affordable food. This partnership has developed into the neighborhood-lead Better Together Co-Op and Garden.